There has been considerable interest in automating earthmoving machinery to the point of providing unmanned autonomous operation of the machine through electronic signals beamed from a remote location such as a satellite. Such autonomous machines include additional devices that perform many of the physical operations that an onboard operator would perform such as steering the machine. However, one requirement imposed on the addition of electrical controls is that the normal manually manipulatable controls should not be compromised so that the machine can still be manually driven by an onboard operator. For example, it is more practical to manually maneuver the machine in tight quarters such as when the machine is taken to a service facility for maintenance or service. Moreover, some autonomous machines use signals from a satellite and those signals would be blocked if the machine is driven into a building thereby necessitating manual operation of the machine.
Thus, it would be desirable to have a control system for an autonomous machine which provides for manned onboard operation of the machine through the normal vehicular controls and unmanned operation through electronically actuated controls added to the machine.